Rafting on Trisuli

At pm in Kathmandu it's difficult to get proper transport to reach your home. So you should arrange the transport before planning to leave for rafting and returning home on the same day (at least from Kathmandu!).

Waiting for bus at Thamel

On 23rd April 2011, plans were that we would leave Kathmandu by 7 am. Well said than, we were at Kalanki till 10am.

We reached Charaunde at around 2pm where boats were arranged. A crowd of rafters were already there ready to raft. But we were hungry. Eggs and breads were self served. After a couple of photo shoot and packing the cameras in boat's black box (the protection box), the guide trained us to row the boat. Here are the commands he taught

All forward!

Filling air in the raft Safety preparation Enjoying in the boat

All backward!


Left forward, right backward!


Right forward, left backward!

Simple to hear, hard to obey. Those commands were really confusing till we practised on the way. Later on it became easier to understand and simple to obey. The guide was the captain of the boat.

After the brief training, our boats was facing rapids. Twin Truck, Laddie's delight and so on. Fancy names! High grade rapids are more adventurous and dangerous because the girls in our boat fell times and again on those rapids. Pinky and Rita swallowed Trisuli water and became 'mukt' from their 'pap'. The white face girl fell off from the boat for three times, but she was tough and returned back to boat each time she fell.

Even though we did not know how to swim, it was not difficult to jump in still water with life jackets. It was easy to float but getting back to boat was tough job and needed help. The guide wanted to catapult the boat but our passenger got the hint and the plan failed.

The rafting took about 3 hrs and ended at the beach of Trisuli at Kuringhat where we ate dal-bhat. Had a brief photo shoot. Then we changed our wet clothes and returned back to Kathmandu. But on the way the tourist vehicle had problem. The tyre puncher and we had to wait for an extra hour.

It was 10pm when we reached back to Kathmandu. Thanks for Juben for providing shelter for that night.

The participants: "Sanima Hydro and Engineering" Nirja (the planner), Sudha (the event manager), Sarita, Eliza, Pinky, Deepika, Gyatri, Rita, Sajan, Maheswor, Naresh and his frens, Arbin, Deepak and others.

The cost: NPR 1500 per head (included travel, breakfast and launch) but not droping at home.

The time: Full day.

Suggestions: Spend couple of days. First day raft and stay at the beach then next day return back!

The bus Jump

The smiling tyres Boat sukaudai Me on boat

Standing at the Zero Mile

Again, as the duty calls, couldn't avoid trekking at Taplejung. Seems I am getting pro now. While trekking ,crossing trail bridge without the side support was thrilling moment in this trip. While humor of Mr Pokhrel and Jahagir was the only thing which was making our sence work. After completing the work we returned to Birtamod on the ninth day.As we had booked a ticked for night travel from Birtamod to home we had one day to spare. So we decided touch the eastern border of Nepal.

We went to eastern political border of Nepal where Mechi river seprates Nepal from India. Kakarbhitta of Jhapa lies on the Nepalese side while the other side is West Bangal province of India.This place is also know as Pani Tanki. The western edge of the bridge is the end snapping point of Mahendra highway. The zero mile of this longest highway of Nepal traversing the whole terai region starts from this place.

After crossing the bridge over Mechi river we can touch the familiar ground of India. I felt the people seems more Nepali than Indian in this part. One friend with us tried talking in Hindi to impress however he was bounced back with "Nepali Bolnus". The people seems to love Nepali Language and Culture rather than core Indian culture.The sign boards were virtually painted in either Nepali or Bengali scripts rather than Hindi. Now I understand why these people are asking for seperate provinance Gorkhaland!

Mechi Bridge	Local Merchent
Raiway track at Panitanki	Panitanki chowk